caa a22 4500 388080809 CHVBK 20180307125214.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199912 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/2586117 doi S0003055400219138 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/2586117 The Effects of Negative Political Advertisements: A Meta-Analytic Assessment [Elektronische Daten] The conventional wisdom about negative political advertisements holds that no one likes them, but they work, that is, they have the consequences their sponsors intend. Moreover, many analysts have expressed concern over the detrimental effects of such negativism on the American political system. We examine the accuracy of the conventional wisdom and the legitimacy of the fears about the consequences for the political system via meta-analysis, a systematic, quantitative review of the literature. The data do not support either contention. Negative political ads appear to be no more effective than positive ads and do not seem to have especially detrimental effects on the political system. Eleven subsidiary hypotheses about particular circumstances in which significant effects are likely to be found are tested and rejected. Discussion focuses on why negative political advertisements have become so popular in practice when there is so little evidence that they work especially well. Copyright © American Political Science Association 1999 Lau Richard R. Rutgers University Sigelman Lee George Washington University Heldman Caroline Rutgers University Babbitt Paul Rutgers University American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 93/4(1999-12), 851-875 0003-0554 93:4<851 1999 93 PSR https://doi.org/10.2307/2586117 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/2586117 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Lau Richard R. Rutgers University NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sigelman Lee George Washington University NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Heldman Caroline Rutgers University NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Babbitt Paul Rutgers University NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 93/4(1999-12), 851-875 0003-0554 93:4<851 1999 93 PSR CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge